spritzer

I'd check with Mioray James as he knows a lot about these old beasts. I'd also stock up on high voltage caps and diodes.

Medallion or normal transformers?

Yup, Stax doesn't stock parts for older models if they have something in current production that fits.

Same exact problem I had with them and so many other great headphones. They are great but when am I going to use them... If the earpads are new stock, then they are the A/Mk2 model since the brown pads have been discontinued. Price is also a good indicator since the new pads are more expensive, roughly 8kYen compared to 6kYen for the old ones.

I personally wouldn't touch that Adcom though I must say I like that copper shield between the PSU and the main circuitry. Also replacing all the film caps with Wima's yet leaving out the aging electrolytics...

The attachements aren't showing up but a vintage dac any day of the week for me. You might have to recap it but that's not a big deal.

The two people who died were Icelandic but utterly clueless. They set off in a Honda CRV not equipped for heading into the highlands. They didn't have a clue where they were going, how to get there or even basic points of reference in the landscape. Now they It's a tragic story about people doing everything wrong, the car running out of gas so they decided to leave it and walk separately to lower ground. If they had just stayed in the car they would have been cold but they would have survived. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened as people think it is just an easy stroll on a summers day to go and see the volcano, which is very far from true. Just this morning it was reported that people had tried to enter the first crater (which has no lava flowing now) which is basically suicide. On a lighter note, this is cool. Damn Americans spying on us though... Being closely related is more like it...

I thought you guys would like this, the volcano on a live video feed. Click any of the links for a different view point. Also, some members of the Top Gear team are up on the glacier now filming some crazy shit which we should see in the summer.

The HE60 has its own sound and nothing else comes close. One might call the Lambda Signature a poor mans HE60 but they are rather different. Same deal with the SR-X Mk3 Pro, some similarities but very different over all. The Mk2 pads might help since they breath a bit more. You also just get used to this strange behaviour with time.

Happy Birthday!!!

...and I'm stuck right in the middle and get neither.

I feel so special since I got that email six times over the weekend.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

It makes a lot more sense to build these things like Pass did (does?) with thick sections of aluminum all attached to corner pillars.

I'd ideally like 50K but 20K should be more then enough to cover very high impedance sources (NOS dac's and the like)

Kerry's version comes with a PSU design but Justin sells the KGSS PSU boards which really are the BH PSU. Just use higher rated capacitors and change the zener string from 350V to 400V.

Here is a larger picture of the CTC unit: The Ayre is something else though with a rather advanced attenuator. Something to look into perhaps...

I have the last of the older BH boards but they are all spoken for. In fact, I haven't even got enough for all the amps I want to build. Now Kerry has his version of the BHSE but I'm not sure if he has any extra boards. The amp could be built for 1300$ but it would involve the cheapest parts that fit the job and getting the chassis essentially for free. 2k$ or more would be a more realistic number once you factor in all the components needed for matching, chassis, attenuation, better parts (which this amp deserves) etc.

It would be a shame to see the RK50 go but it is a bit of dinosaur. Now of Khozmo have ever shipped anything then their large attenuator would be an option too. I'm all for a full input/output board but I'd probably never use it. Might want to add invert phase too on top of the mute etc. features.

What we really need are PCB mount units which basically leaves the Vampire units and the Cardas GRFA. Now if you want to P2P wire it then the sky is really the limit. I've always been quite fond of the WBT silvers but then I'm nuts. Not sure but something by Seiden, Elma or Shallco would work for me. I'd also like to switch the ground with the signal to interferance at bay from cheaper sources such as TV's etc. This means a lot of wires but locating the switch and volume control close to the input would minimize it. Since the Blowtorch is the inspiration for all of this, then I particularly don't like the layout they chose. Speaking of the Blowtorch, it appears they used the P65 TKD stepped attenuators and a Seiden input selector. The TKD's aren't available in 4 gang but their range of 2 gang versions is pretty impressive. Horribly expensive but impressive with one version reaching 115kYen for a 2-gang unit. Now a DACT would suffice for most users or a relay based unit (both could be remote controlled with ease) but a quad RK50 or a large stepper works best for the nutcases amongst us.

Worked and then went to Easter dinner at the family summerhouse. It was fun thrashing the car a bit on the bendy road to and from there. Didn't dare go any faster then 160km/h as there was real danger of ice patches on the road (about -4

Happy Birthday!!

As Kevin knows, I'm in for the full on crazyness. I'm always partial to RCA inputs over XLR's and Vampire would make the most sense here. Not to expensive and very well made which is probably why everybody is using them these days. Attenuator, probably the 3"x3", 60 step, Shallco monster.

It would be fun to compare but the older BH has more then an even chance of coming out on top in this comparison. A more thermally stable PSU and the older output stage CCS might have an performance edge. We'll see when I'll compare the BHSE, Kerry's version of the same design and the SOTA Blue Hawaii's I'm working on.